Southern Electric Bill

waspymatt

My wife and I returned home last week (Wednesday) to discover a letter from Southern Electric to advise that our Direct Debit is going to increase from £31 a month to £165 for the same period. This was apparently due to the fact that our usage was higher than estimated.

My wife spoke to them and they have advised that the electricity usage for our 2 bedroom flat has increased 10-fold since January and we are now £2k in arrears. They said that we have been using £97 worth of electricity a month.

Cutting a long story short - we have not changed any of our electronic products in this time, we rarely (if ever) use the panel heaters of which there are 4 in the flat (last winter we did use the one heater in the lounge but only in short measures) and we are completely at a loss to explain how this could have increased by so much and without any form of warning from them that this was the case.

They have advised that we should seek legal advise as the house builders should have installed economy 7 heating and they didn't. They have said they can change our meter to E7 but we would need to get the heaters and the emersion heater changed so that it is compatible with the new meter type. We do not have the money to change the heaters and we did advise Southern Electric of what we had when we signed up with them 2 years ago and they were initially estimating our monthly usage.

Can anyone out there help or offer any advise in this matter?

Thanks in advance....:(

Matt

anniecave

how long have you been in the property? years? or months?
With electric heating, you will obviously use more in the winter than in the summer.
What actual meter readings do you have? Are you sure this isn't a meter reading error? Like they think the meter reading is 34567 and it's actually 24567 or something similar?
I used to live in an all electric flat, and it very much depends on your insulation/windows and building type and where you are in the building (lots of neighbours around you all with their heating on? or no neighbours with heating?).

waspymatt

We moved into the flat in June '08. My wife and I have both checked the meter reading which was submitted to them over the phone and it is definately correct.
We are a first floor flat (no one above us) and we are connected on one side to our neighbour...but the heating is hardly (if) ever on.

Susan1942

There is no way that £31 a month would have covered the cost of electrically heating a 2 bedroomed flat.
Where I have a problem is the fact that you have been giving them readings and they have allowed you to have such low payments for this long period.
I have a flat with economy 7 heaters and I have been paying £101 a month with Atlantic and changed over to the Go Direct 5 plan with Southern and this is much cheaper than Atlantic. Same Company just different tariff. I was offered this tariff when my payments were to go to £110 per month. Now with Go Direct 5 I am paying £80 based on the same amount of usage.

I think you need them to explain WHY they allowed this situation to develop.
I am now thinking of moving to Scottish Power even though I will have a £50 penalty to pay I should still save another £115 a year. This is based on giving them the amount of units per year. How much you pay does not give a true picture.
My water also heats on the economy 7 and my electricity use is 80% on this. Were I not then I dread to think how much my bills would be,

Sue

Andy_WSM

waspymatt wrote: »

They have advised that we should seek legal advise as the house builders should have installed economy 7 heating and they didn't.

Huh? What law says any builder HAS to install any particular type of heating?!

The heating you have / use is a choice. You could have refused to move to an all electric property. If enough people did that then more economical forms of heating would be the norm, but as it is the builders will fit whatever they can fit the cheapest.

Do agree with the above that £31 a month is nowhere near enough for an all electric property. This comes up time after time and most all electric properties use double that or more.

daveyjp

"we are completely at a loss to explain how this could have increased by so much and without any form of warning from them that this was the case."

The form of warning is the statements they send you. Every time one arrives you need to read the meter to catch the shortfall early.

Susan1942

Yes when I get my bill I check my meter. They always underestimate my night readings but over estimate my day use. This is because I have economy 7 and have no electric fire or heating I use on the day rate. My night use is 80% and the day use only 20% of what I use.

Sue

Premier_2

Susan1942 wrote: »

Yes when I get my bill I check my meter. They always underestimate my night readings but over estimate my day use. This is because I have economy 7 and have no electric fire or heating I use on the day rate. My night use is 80% and the day use only 20% of what I use.

Sue

If you keep providing the supplier with correct readings each time you get an estimated bill/statement, the supplier should get their estimations more accurate over time.

We have E7 and gas central heating and have a similar ratio split to yourself, but any estimated readings are now quite accurate. However we do still check and report any significant differences when we do get an estimated bill. The more information they have, the more accurate the estimations become.

Susan1942

Yes I do ring them with my meter reading and they send me a revised bill so I always know where I am.

Sue